Fighting His Fate

FIGHTING HIS FATE Predator Peak Book 1 ELENA AITKEN E.R. AITKEN Contents Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Epilogue His to Protect Also by Elena Aitken Join Me! About the Author Prologue The sliver of the waxing moon provided just enough light to see the shadows gathered around the bonfire. Not that Nolan North needed any light at all to see them. His wolf-shifter senses were finely tuned, allowing him to see even in the darkest of nights. He saw them. He saw them all. They were waiting for him, just as he knew they would be. Even if Gabriel, the pack elder, hadn’t given him the heads-up, Nolan would have known. The writing had been on the wall for months—maybe even years—now. It was only a matter of time before Nolan’s status as pack alpha would be challenged. It seemed tonight was the night. He stepped from his cabin, shutting the door behind him on the home he’d shared for the past seven years with Julia, his mate. Mate. For whatever that meant anymore. Nothing. It meant nothing. And it hadn’t for a long time. Longer than Nolan cared to admit. Hell, probably since the beginning. Julia could hardly stand to look at him, let alone be in the same room as him. There’d never been any love between them. They’d been selected to be mates by the elders, just as all the wolves in his pack were. Matches were made to improve and strengthen the bloodline of the pack. The love would come, along with the pups. They’d grow as a family and a unit, building their love for each other. The problem was, it hadn’t worked: bloodlines and purity didn’t matter if there weren’t any pups conceived. Despite their best efforts, month after month, they failed to create a family. And with each failure, Nolan saw Julia’s resentment turn into distaste for him, and even hatred. He knew she blamed him for their inability to conceive. But it wasn’t just Nolan and Julia. There hadn’t been any babies born into their pack for almost twelve years. As the alpha and leader of the pack, the responsibility for that fell squarely on Nolan’s shoulders. As if it wasn’t bad enough to see the resentment on his own mate’s face every day, and hear her mournful cry every month when, once again, she wasn’t pregnant despite their efforts on every full moon, he felt that same pain from every mated couple in the pack. It was his job to protect the pack, to ensure that not only did they survive their reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park, but they thrived. He was failing. Which was why they were waiting for him at the fire. It was long past time for a reckoning. He wasn’t surprised that Julia wasn’t with him. In fact, he hadn’t seen her all day. Not that Nolan expected her to be supportive or to stand by him as his alpha female. There’d been a brief period in their relationship when she’d been proud to be the alpha female and his chosen mate. She’d walk shoulder to shoulder with him, and counsel the pack females when it was needed. Julia could always be found taking care of sick pack members or stepping in when someone needed an extra hand. Despite the growing tension between the two of them, she’d always taken her role seriously and done her job well. As for their own relationship, Nolan couldn’t remember the last time they’d even exchanged pleasantries, let alone had a real conversation. They came together once a month on the full moon, just as duty required. But that’s all it was. Duty. Nolan slept on the couch, or in the woods. With no solid foundation to start with, it didn’t take long for the distance between them to grow until it was too big of a cavern to breach. There’d been no point in trying to talk it out or work things out. There was only one problem, and it was the one he couldn’t solve. Not for him and Julia. Not for any of them. Not that he hadn’t tried. The gods knew he had. Besides the problem with procreating, Nolan had spent the last few years keeping their businesses in the far corner of Yellowstone afloat. The tourists liked to see wolves from the safety of their cars. But what they really liked to see were cute little wolf pups frolicking and playing. That’s what made for good social media posts, and that’s exactly what they hadn’t been able to give them. Nolan knew their reintroduction to the national park was tenuous at best. And if they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain, his pack was going to be once again kicked off the land that had been theirs for generations. Despite the mounting pressure, he couldn’t figure out what was wrong and why there were no babies. He just couldn’t understand it. Not that it mattered now. It seemed it might not be his problem for much longer. Nolan left his cabin behind and made his way through the woods toward the glow of the fire where the others were gathered. Most of the pack was there, standing back in the shadows. They were his friends. His family. Nolan had no doubt there was still some love and loyalty for him among his pack. He also knew there was a lot of frustration and fear running through them. That made them unpredictable. But it wasn’t the pack at large Nolan was focused on at the moment. It was Reg Davis, who stood in front of him, shoulders back, chest puffed up and chin out. That wasn’t a surprise. Nolan knew it was likely to be Reg who led the revolt against